Dynamic item-space allocation and retrieval

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to staging manufactured items and provide a method, system and computer program product for staging items in a manufacturing environment. In an embodiment of the invention, a method for staging items in a manufacturing environment can be provided. The method can include defining attributes of staging locations in a distribution area of the manufacturing environment, defining a set of staging strategies for use in the distribution area of the manufacturing environment, receiving a manufactured item in the distribution area and obtaining characteristics of the manufactured item, and comparing the obtained characteristics of the manufactured item to the set of staging strategies to select the staging strategy to apply to the manufactured item.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a Divisional of U.S. application Ser. No.11/967,152, filed Dec. 29, 2007, entitled “DYNAMIC ITEM-SPACE ALLOCATIONAND RETRIEVAL,” the entirety of which is incorporated herein byreference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Statement of the Technical Field

The present invention relates to integrated supply chain management andmore particularly to a distribution management system utilizinguser-defined space characteristics and staging analysis.

2. Description of the Related Art

As the global economy provides a proliferation of options for businessesto expand into emerging markets, manufacturing success is increasinglydefined by how fast you act and how well you react to supply chainvolatility. Modern manufacturing facilities are increasingly becomingmore complex as customers expect manufacturers to keep prices low whilereadily accommodating last-minute changes in quantity, productconfiguration or delivery date.

Modern manufacturing facilities can produce scores of different types ofgoods from small shelf stocked items to large configure-to-order (CTO)multi-rack enterprise services. In many cases, these products areindividual CTO products that are unique to a particular customer. Theseproducts have variable sizes, variable time-to-build cycle times, andmay exit manufacturing as individual items or in groups. Themanufacturing facilities can have multiple production lines producingmany different goods that congregate for shipment at various shippingdocks. With numerous shipping docks, numerous potential carriers and/orshippers to service each dock, multiple areas that service certain modesof shipping e.g., air vs. ground, and physical space restrictions, thestaging and movement of customer shipments to the shipping lanes hasbecome a daunting task.

These factors can combine to create a complex routing scenario for aproduct once it leaves the manufacturing realm and enters distribution.Current distribution or warehouse management systems do not properlymanage the utilization of the dock/ship lanes and finished goodswarehouse staging areas to effectively control the staging of items, theconsolidation of shipping entities, the application of various stagingstrategies and the optimization of available space.

Current distribution or warehouse management systems generally areintended for use with fixed part numbers with fixed locations forstorage and retrieval. These distribution or warehouse managementsystems are not intended for products variable in size, variable inquantity, and pulled by a customer that does not follow the traditionallast in first out (LIFO)/first in first out (FIFO) or part binmanagement principles. Furthermore, traditional distribution orwarehouse management systems lack the ability to model different stagingstrategies based on the specific characteristics about an order, e.g.,the “dock” that a shipment is “intended for”. Additionally, thesedistribution or warehouse management systems lack the ability to createstaging strategies that combine the relationship of physical entities toone another, e.g., placing four different sized CTO items in certainarea while placing all ship group boxes for this customer in an adjacentlocation for ease of customer ship entity management.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art inrespect to staging manufactured items and provide a novel andnon-obvious method, system and computer program product for stagingitems in a manufacturing environment. In an embodiment of the invention,a method for staging items in a manufacturing environment can beprovided. The method can include defining attributes of staginglocations in a distribution area of the manufacturing environment,defining a set of staging strategies for use in the distribution area ofthe manufacturing environment, receiving a manufactured item in thedistribution area and obtaining characteristics of the manufactureditem, comparing the obtained characteristics of the manufactured item tothe set of staging strategies to select the staging strategy to apply tothe manufactured item and applying the selected staging strategy to themanufactured item to assign the manufactured item to storage in one ofthe staging locations in the distribution area based on matching theobtained characteristics of the manufactured item to the definedattributes of the one of the staging locations.

In one aspect of the embodiment, the method further can include updatingan item tracking record to reflect the assigned staging location. Inanother aspect of the embodiment, the method further can includeupdating an item tracking record to reflect the assigned staginglocation. In yet another aspect of the embodiment, the method furthercan include applying space optimization usage logic to the assignedstaging location to determine a storage position for the manufactureditem in the assigned staging location based on container characteristicsof the manufactured item.

In another preferred embodiment of the invention, a system for stagingitems in a manufacturing environment can be provided. The system caninclude a data store of manufactured items and staging locations forstoring the manufactured items. The system further can include an itemstaging engine communicatively coupled to a distribution system and thedata store. The system further can include item staging logic. The logiccan include program code enabled to define attributes of staginglocations in a distribution area of the manufacturing environment, todefine a set of staging strategies for use in the distribution area ofthe manufacturing environment, to receive one of the manufactured itemsin the distribution area and obtain characteristics of the manufactureditem, to compare the obtained characteristics of the manufactured itemto the set of staging strategies and select the staging strategy toapply to the manufactured item, and to apply the selected stagingstrategy to the manufactured item and assign the manufactured item tostorage in one of the staging locations based on matching the obtainedcharacteristics of the manufactured item to the defined attributes ofthe one of the staging locations.

Additional aspects of the invention will be set forth in part in thedescription which follows, and in part will be obvious from thedescription, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The aspectsof the invention will be realized and attained by means of the elementsand combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims. It isto be understood that both the foregoing general description and thefollowing detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only andare not restrictive of the invention, as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute partof this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention andtogether with the description, serve to explain the principles of theinvention. The embodiments illustrated herein are presently preferred,it being understood, however, that the invention is not limited to theprecise arrangements and instrumentalities shown, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of an item based shipping anddistribution system utilizing an item staging engine;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a process for item staged shippingand distribution analysis;

FIG. 3A is a block diagram illustrating staging management rulesincorporated into the item staged shipping and distribution analysis ofFIG. 2;

FIG. 3B is a block diagram illustrating staging location attributesincorporated into the item staged shipping and distribution analysis ofFIG. 2;

FIG. 3C is a block diagram illustrating staging strategy rulesincorporated into the item staged shipping and distribution analysis ofFIG. 2;

FIG. 3D is a block diagram illustrating item (container) trackingcharacteristics incorporated into the item staged shipping anddistribution analysis of FIG. 2;

FIG. 3E is a block diagram illustrating container characteristicsincorporated into the item staged shipping and distribution analysis ofFIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a staging process utilized by theitem staging engine of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a retrieval process utilized by theitem staging engine of FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, system andcomputer program product for staging items e.g., containers, in amanufacturing environment based on item attributes, locationcharacteristics, and entity attributes. In accordance with an embodimentof the present invention, attributes of staging locations in adistribution area of a manufacturing environment can be defined. Also, aset of staging strategies for use in the distribution area of themanufacturing environment can be defined. Thereafter, a manufactureditem can be received in the distribution area and the characteristics ofthe manufactured item can be obtained. The obtained characteristics ofthe manufactured item are compared to a set of staging strategies toselect a staging strategy. The selected staging strategy is applied tothe manufactured item and a staging location is assigned based onmatching the obtained characteristics of the manufactured item to thedefined attributes of the staging locations.

In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, a systemto create new methods, models and set of algorithms to determine optimumstaging (storage and retrieval) of manufacturing containers as theycomplete manufacturing (or when received from suppliers) in preparationfor shipment. The models allow maximum use of the physical facilitieswhile making tradeoffs for other factors such as customer shipment,order destination, physical characteristics, carrier, mode oftransportation, overflow areas, delivery completeness, shipment lanes,etc.

In illustration, FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a shipping anddistribution system utilizing an item staging (allocation/retrieval)engine. A computer 100 with an operating system 110 can be coupled to adatabase 120 of product management data including container information,product order characteristics and staging location characteristics. Ashipping and distribution system 130 can be coupled to an item stagingengine 140. The staging management rules 150 can be coupled to theshipping and distribution system 130 and the item staging engine 140.The staging management rules 150 can enable the shipping anddistribution system 130 or the item staging engine 140 to apply astaging strategy based on numerous factors including but not limited tophysical characteristics of items (products and containers), types oforders, area/location characteristics, physical space restrictions, andshipment method. The computer 100 can be coupled to manufacturing floorcontroller 190, user interface 170 and also tracking equipment 180 overcomputer communications network 160 for receiving and tracking itemsfrom manufacturing and within distribution.

In further illustration, FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a processfor user-defined space staging analysis in a manufacturing supply chainprocess. In block 200, a manufactured item can be received frommanufacturing and the details of the manufactured item can include atype of entity, type of order, type of container, type of item (machineor product), ship date factors, mode of shipment, carrier andshipping/staging location. In block 210, the item staging engine 140 canbe invoked by computer 100 or shipping and distribution system 130during post manufacturing. In block 220, the item staging engine 140 caninclude staging location logic for modeling or defining a set of stagingareas/locations in a manufacturing facility with their correspondingcharacteristics and attributes. Typically, the modeling of the stagingareas/locations will occur once, e.g., during an initialization stage ofthe system; however, the modeling can occur multiple times, e.g., atuser-defined stages.

Additionally, in block 230, the item staging engine 140 can includestaging strategy logic for modeling a set of staging strategies based onthe characteristics of a manufactured item and any other user-definedparameters. The staging location logic and the staging strategy logiccan be coupled to the item staging engine 140 either directly as part ofthe computing system or remotely through an application programminginterface (API) of the computing system. The staging strategy logic caninclude program code enabled to analyze the manufactured item, itsrelated characteristics and the available staging locationcharacteristics in order to select a staging strategy most responsive tothat particular manufactured item. Typically, the modeling of thestaging strategies will occur once, e.g., during an initialization stageof the system; however, the modeling can occur multiple times, e.g., atuser-defined stages.

In an embodiment of the system, item staging logic can include programcode enabled to define attributes of staging locations in a distributionarea of the manufacturing environment, to define a set of stagingstrategies for use in the distribution area of the manufacturingenvironment, to receive one of the manufactured items in thedistribution area and obtain characteristics of the manufactured item,to compare the obtained characteristics of the manufactured item to theset of staging strategies and select the staging strategy to apply tothe manufactured item, and to apply the selected staging strategy to themanufactured item and assign the manufactured item to storage in one ofthe staging locations based on matching the obtained characteristics ofthe manufactured item to the defined attributes of the one of thestaging locations. The item staging engine 140 is discussed in greaterdetail with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5. Staging management rules,staging locations, staging strategies, container tracking and containercharacteristics are discussed in greater detail with reference to thetables of FIGS. 3A through 3E.

FIG. 3A is a block diagram illustrating staging management rules 150incorporated into the item staged shipping and distribution analysis ofFIG. 2. Block 310 of FIG. 3A contains the characteristics or attributesof staging locations in a manufacturing and distribution system. Block320 in turn contains a set of staging strategy rules. The stagingstrategy rules 320 can be based on each manufactured item or product andthe details of the manufactured item, which can include a type ofentity, type of order, type of container, type of item (machine orproduct), ship date factors, mode of shipment, carrier andshipping/staging location. Block 330 contains the item (container)tracking table. The item (container) tracking table is a transactiontable that stores data for each container and its recommend/currentlocation.

FIG. 3B is a block diagram illustrating characteristics of the staginglocations, which are incorporated into the item staged shipping anddistribution analysis of FIG. 2. For example, block 310 captures thelocation characteristics, container dimensions, container positions andother attributes. In one embodiment, the first, second third and fourthcolumns of block 310 indicated the building, dock, area, location andplane of a particular staging location. Block 310 can further includelength (L), width (W), weight capacity (CAP), preferred storage accessside (Major Axis), type of containers permitted in a location (TypeList) and quantity of a specific type of container (Type Qty), which canbe used as a key for the grouping of homogeneous items of a definedstaging location. In addition, block 312 also can include location fillstatus (Fill Stat), the version of the “space algorithm” to execute(Space Alg), a user-set hard limit for the number of iterations to runin the best fit space algorithm (Iteration Number) that can be used toobtain the best fit for multiple containers in the specified location,and buffer distance between containers in two dimensions (Ctr sizebuffer) that can be used for space fill calculations. Furthercharacteristics of block 312 can include the allowable breakage of shipentities, carrier groupings, or other grouping types into multipledifferent locations (Overflow Limit), proximity value (Dock Prox) thatcan be used for ship date optimization, ship lane to carrier association(Current Carrier) and environmental limitations and characteristics(Attributes/limitations) that can be used in determining locationavailability when mapped to the same limitations/characteristics of theitem containers.

FIG. 3C is a block diagram illustrating characteristics of the stagingstrategy rules, which are incorporated into the item staged shipping anddistribution analysis of FIG. 2. For example, block 320 captures thecarrier, shipping, location attributes, container dimensions, containerpositions and other attributes. These attributes and values help definewhich staging strategy to apply to a certain area or location in theshipping and distribution system 130. The mapping shown in block 320 isused by the item staging process to ensure that staging locationoptimization is maintained. Each row of the block 320 shows the datacorresponding to a strategy name, while each column shows one or morevalues associated with a manufactured item and attributes of a staginglocation. The first column of block 320 is populated with the strategyname, such as “203-1” which is a unique name that identifies aparticular staging strategy.

The second column of block 320 is populated with a priority, which is anumerical value that indicates relative priority between multiplestrategies applicable to one area. The third column of block 320 ispopulated with an active value, which indicates whether a strategy is inactive use for a particular set of locations. The fourth and fifthcolumns of block 320 are populated with a date range, which sets thedate range that a strategy is effective for this area.

The sixth through twelfth columns of block 320 are populated withvarious characteristics of the manufactured item (and container) such asentity type, type of system, container type, brand type, carrier names,mode of transport and ship to country list. The thirteenth andfourteenth columns of block 320 are populated with the ship window andthe time until the ship window commences. The fifteenth throughnineteenth columns are populated with the building, dock, area, locationand plane of a particular staging location, similar to the same entriesin the staging locations table of FIG. 3B. Finally, the sixteenth columnidentifies the chosen staging strategy for the designated location withthe corresponding set of attributes and factors.

In further illustration, FIG. 3D is a block diagram illustratingcharacteristics of item (container) tracking, which are incorporatedinto the item staged shipping and distribution analysis of FIG. 2. Item(container) tracking block 330 tracks containers and their respectiveattributes/locations. For example, the fourteenth through eighteenthcolumns are populated with the building, dock, area, location and planeof a particular staging location, similar to the same entries in thestaging locations block 310 of FIG. 3B and staging strategy block 320.The first through fifth columns of block 330 are populated with the shipentity, build entity, container number, container type code and itemnumber. In this embodiment, the ship entity is a grouping of orders forshipment, the build entity is a grouping of orders for manufacturingassembly and test, and a container type code is a code for the type ofcontainer and this code provides for lookup of the characteristics of acontainer from a container characteristics block 340 (shown in FIG. 3E).The item number can be a part number for a finished good item built to afixed structure, or it can be an association of grouping of entities toa unique number.

The container tracking block further can include a chosen carrier, amode of transport, the type of system, the brand and the dimensions andpreferred storage orientation for a container such as length, width,weight and major orientation axis. The nineteenth and twentieth columnsare populated with values (X, Y) that indicate the grid position of thecontainer relative to a 0, 0 point of the specified location. Finallythe twenty-first column of block 330 can be populated with the locationstatus for the container, such as located (L), assigned (A), notassigned (N), etc. In one embodiment, a movement status (M) can be addedto any status indicator to indicate a container is to be moved to a newlocation, such as LM or NM.

In further illustration, FIG. 3E is a block diagram illustratingcharacteristics of containers, which are incorporated into the itemstaged shipping and distribution analysis of FIG. 2. Containercharacteristics block 340 captures and contains characteristicsassociated with a container, such as container type, item number, typeof system, container length, width, weight and preferred storageorientation for that container, e.g. major axis. Block 340 further cancontain sets of miscellaneous environmental attributes, limitationsand/or characteristics for a container, such as radio frequency (RF)sensitivity or temperature sensitivity.

In still further illustration, FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating astaging (allocation) process utilized by the item staging engine 140 ofFIG. 1. Beginning in block 405, the presence of a manufactured itementering a distribution and shipping system area can be detected and itsitem (container) tracking record can be obtained from the containertracking block 330. The container tracking block 330 can be stored inlocation and container data store 120 or another memory device. Theinformation in the item (container) tracking record can be analyzed bythe item staging engine 140 and a staging strategy can be selected basedon this analysis. For example, in one embodiment the detectedmanufactured item can have a ship and/or build entity identifier thatindicates that this detected manufactured item is “tied” by entity to anumber of other manufactured items, which may or may not currently bestaged. For this example, the strategy is to stage all items in theentity together by their entity identifiers in the staging and/or shiplane locations. As a result, an “entity-tie” staging strategy would be“looked up” or selected in block 415. In block 420, the selected stagingstrategy, e.g., “entity-tie”, can be executed by the item staging engine140 and a staging location can be assigned to this manufactured item.Notably, during the execution of the selected staging strategy, theattributes of the staging locations in block 310 are retrieved andanalyzed. In addition, container tracking records of relatedmanufactured items, such as those related to the detected manufactureditem, e.g., “entity-tied”, are analyzed to determine where these otherrelated manufactured items are staged. As a result of this analysis, astaging location can be assigned to the detected manufactured item thatwill optimize the staging of the entity-tied set of items.

In the above example, there can be several staging combinations and/oriterations. For example, all items can be staged in staging locationsprior to retrieval and transport to the ship lanes. Alternatively, someitems can be staged but some items can proceed directly to the shiplanes. For example, some items are staged, however a ship window isavailable, so when the last item arrives, all the other items areretrieved (or “pulled”) from their respective staging locations andtransported to the appropriate ship lanes. In addition, all the itemscan move directly to the ship lanes as they arrive from manufacturing.In some ways, the ship lanes can be treated as just another staginglocation and the assignment of a “staging location” to a manufactureditem can be a ship lane. The staging-retrieval logic can be invokedmultiple times as needed to stage and move the item through thedistribution area.

In another embodiment, the detected manufactured item can have aspecific container type but no entity type. In this embodiment, prioritycan be assigned to staging all items having the same container type inthe same location or area. As such, a staging strategy by container typecan be selected in block 415 and executed in block 420 to determine astaging location that may have user-defined attributes requiring thatspecific container type. In other words, the container type stagingstrategy ensures that all containers of a particular size and type arelocated together either within an area or a certain location. Otherembodiments provide for selecting other staging strategies. For example,in one embodiment the carrier type and mode are priority factors in theselection of a staging strategy. Accordingly, if the detectedmanufactured item had a specific carrier identified for its shipping,then a carrier type staging strategy would be selected in block 415 andexecuted in block 420 to determine a staging location that may haveuser-defined attributes requiring that specific carrier type. In anotherembodiment, the item number is a priority factor in the selection of astaging strategy. Accordingly, if the detected manufactured item had aspecific item number, then an item number staging strategy would beselected in block 415 and executed in block 420 to determine a staginglocation that may have user-defined attributes requiring that specificitem number.

In yet another embodiment, the detected manufactured item can have aspecific ship date. In this embodiment, priority can be assigned tostaging all items having the same ship date in the same location orarea. As such, a staging strategy by ship date can be selected in block415 and executed in block 420 to determine a staging location that mayhave user-defined attributes requiring that specific ship date. In otherwords, the ship date staging strategy ensures that all containers havinga particular ship date will be staged together. Moreover, the ship datestaging strategy provides that for those manufactured items awaitingshipment with far away ship dates are staged physically far away to theship lanes while those manufactured items having close ship dates arestaged close to the ship lanes. In addition, other “user-defined”staging strategies can be defined, selected and executed by the itemstaging engine 140. For example, a type of system identifier could bedefined as the priority determining factor for selection of a stagingstrategy. Finally, in other embodiments, combinations of stagingstrategies are used to provide the optimal staging of the manufactureditems. For example, a dock is shipping a particular brand ofmanufactured items, e.g., brand I. All brand I manufactured items are“entity-tied” new build machines, and the strategy is to stage thesebrand I items by contain size. The small containers that are entity tiedare kept together, while the large containers, e.g., tower containers,are kept in separate individual tower box locations. Consequently, theabove embodiment is a combination of the entity tie staging strategywith the container type staging strategy.

In another embodiment, a “user-defined” staging strategy can be selectedas the staging strategy in block 415. The user-defined staging strategycan provide a user with significant flexibility in customizing a stagingstrategy for use in the user's manufacturing facility. As such, auser-defined staging strategy can prioritize, which characteristics areused to determine the staging of a manufactured item. As such, auser-defined staging strategy can receive data input related to thestaging locations, the containers in an entity, location fillinformation, etc. and assign an appropriate staging location.

In block 425, the assigned location can be presented to an interface,e.g., a console of an operator or the receiver of an automated machine,of a transporter, e.g., a device or person. Upon presentation of theassigned location, the transporter transports the manufactured item tothe assigned location. In decision block 435, a determination is made asto the availability of the assigned location. If the assigned locationis available, the transporter moves the item into the assigned staginglocation in block 440 and then acknowledges that the item is in theassigned area to report the successful move of the item to the assignedlocation in block 445. Otherwise, if the assigned location isunavailable, the transporter can move the item into a secondary staginglocation in block 450 and then acknowledges that the item is in thesecondary location to report the successful override move of the item tothe secondary location in block 455. The appropriate record of item(container) tracking block 330 is updated to reflect the physicallocation of the manufactured item with either the assigned location orthe secondary location.

In still further illustration, FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating aretrieval process utilized by the item staging engine of FIG. 1.Beginning in block 500, an indication that a shipment is complete andready for processing is received, such as the completion of a shipentity. In decision block 505, it can be determined if shipment is withits ship window. If so, in block 510 the item staging locationinformation can be pulled from the item (container) tracking block 330and a command to retrieve the item for storage can be issued to atransporter in block 515. Otherwise, the retrieval process can return toblock 500 or merely wait until the ship window commences for thatparticular shipment. In block 520, the transporter proceeds to thedesignated retrieval area or location and searches for the shipment(entity) item(s) in the designated locations in block 525.

In decision block 530, it can be determined if the contents of thedesignated locations match the item (container) tracking block 330 oflocation and container data store 120. If so, in block 535 thetransporter pulls the item(s) from the designated locations, verifiesthe items pulled and commences the shipping process in block 540. Inblock 545, the shipment is processed and the proper manifests and/ordocuments are applied to the processed shipment and the transporter canmove the item containers to the ship lanes in block 550 where the itemcontainers are processed out in block 555. If however the contents ofthe designated locations do not match the item (container) trackingblock 330 of location and container data store 120, then a missing itemssearch can be initiated in block 560. In block 565, the transporter cantraverse adjacent locations in an attempt to locate the missing items.In decision block 570, it can be determined if the missing items werefound. If so, the transporter can pull the items in block 535.Otherwise, in block 575 further search procedures can be initiated. Ineither case, the status of the moved containers can be reported back tothe item (container) tracking block 330.

The present invention can be realized in hardware, software, or acombination of hardware and software. An implementation of the methodand system of the present invention can be realized in a centralizedfashion in one computer system or in a distributed fashion wheredifferent elements are spread across several interconnected computersystems. Any kind of computer system, or other apparatus adapted forcarrying out the methods described herein, is suited to perform thefunctions described herein.

A typical combination of hardware and software could be ageneral-purpose computer system with a computer program that, when beingloaded and executed, controls the computer system such that it carriesout the methods described herein. The present invention can also beembedded in a computer program product, which comprises all the featuresenabling the implementation of the methods described herein, and which,when loaded in a computer system is able to carry out these methods.

Embodiments of the invention can take the form of an entirely hardwareembodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment containingboth hardware and software elements. In a preferred embodiment, theinvention is implemented in software, which includes but is not limitedto firmware, resident software, microcode, and the like. Furthermore,the invention can take the form of a computer program product accessiblefrom a computer-usable or computer-readable medium providing programcode for use by or in connection with a computer or any instructionexecution system.

For the purposes of this description, a computer-usable or computerreadable medium can be any apparatus that can contain, store,communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or inconnection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.The medium can be an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic,infrared, or semiconductor system (or apparatus or device) or apropagation medium. Examples of a computer-readable medium include asemiconductor or solid state memory, magnetic tape, a removable computerdiskette, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), arigid magnetic disk and an optical disk. Current examples of opticaldisks include compact disk-read only memory (CD-ROM), compactdisk-read/write (CD-R/W) and DVD.

Computer program or application in the present context means anyexpression, in any language, code or notation, of a set of instructionsintended to cause a system having an information processing capabilityto perform a particular function either directly or after either or bothof the following a) conversion to another language, code or notation; b)reproduction in a different material form. Significantly, this inventioncan be embodied in other specific forms without departing from thespirit or essential attributes thereof, and accordingly, referenceshould be had to the following claims, rather than to the foregoingspecification, as indicating the scope of the invention.

A data processing system suitable for storing and/or executing programcode will include at least one processor coupled directly or indirectlyto memory elements through a system bus. The memory elements can includelocal memory employed during actual execution of the program code, bulkstorage, and cache memories which provide temporary storage of at leastsome program code in order to reduce the number of times code must beretrieved from bulk storage during execution. Input/output or I/Odevices (including but not limited to keyboards, displays, pointingdevices, etc.) can be coupled to the system either directly or throughintervening I/O controllers. Network adapters may also be coupled to thesystem to enable the data processing system to become coupled to otherdata processing systems or remote printers or storage devices throughintervening private or public networks. Modems, cable modem and Ethernetcards are just a few of the currently available types of networkadapters.

We claim:
 1. A method for staging items in a manufacturing environment,the method comprising: defining attributes of staging locations in adistribution area of the manufacturing environment; defining a set ofstaging strategies for use in the distribution area of the manufacturingenvironment; receiving a manufactured item in the distribution area andobtaining characteristics of the manufactured item; comparing theobtained characteristics of the manufactured item to the set of stagingstrategies to select the staging strategy to apply to the manufactureditem; applying the selected staging strategy to the manufactured item toassign the manufactured item to storage in one of the staging locationsin the distribution area based on matching the obtained characteristicsof the manufactured item to the defined attributes of the one of thestaging locations; and, retrieving the manufactured item from theassigned staging location and placing the manufactured item in a shiplane based on a completed entity type and entry into an entity shipwindow.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising transporting themanufactured item to the assigned staging location.
 3. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising updating an item tracking record to reflectthe assigned staging location.
 4. The method of claim 1, whereinselecting the staging strategy to apply to the manufactured itemcomprises obtaining an entity type characteristic of the manufactureditem and selecting an entity tie staging strategy.
 5. The method ofclaim 1, wherein selecting the staging strategy to apply to themanufactured item comprises obtaining a container type characteristic ofthe manufactured item and selecting a container type staging strategy.6. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the staging strategy toapply to the manufactured item comprises obtaining a carrier typecharacteristic of the manufactured item and selecting a carrier typestaging strategy.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting thestaging strategy to apply to the manufactured item comprises obtainingan item number type characteristic of the manufactured item andselecting an item number staging strategy.
 8. The method of claim 1,wherein selecting the staging strategy to apply to the manufactured itemcomprises obtaining ship date and ship window type characteristics ofthe manufactured item and selecting a ship date staging strategy.
 9. Acomputer program product comprising a computer usable storage mediumstoring embodying computer usable program code for staging items in amanufacturing environment, the computer program product comprising:computer usable program code for defining attributes of staginglocations in a distribution area of the manufacturing environment;computer usable program code for defining a set of staging strategiesfor use in the distribution area of the manufacturing environment;computer usable program code for receiving a manufactured item in thedistribution area and obtaining characteristics of the manufactureditem; computer usable program code for comparing the obtainedcharacteristics of the manufactured item to the set of stagingstrategies to select the staging strategy to apply to the manufactureditem; computer usable program code for applying the selected stagingstrategy to the manufactured item to assign the manufactured item tostorage in one of the staging locations in the distribution area basedon matching the obtained characteristics of the manufactured item to thedefined attributes of the one of the staging locations; and, computerusable program code for retrieving the manufactured item from theassigned staging location and placing the manufactured item in a shiplane based on a completed entity type and entry into an entity shipwindow.
 10. The computer program product of claim 9, further comprisingcomputer usable program code for transporting the manufactured item tothe assigned staging location.
 11. The computer program product of claim9, further comprising computer usable program code for updating an itemtracking record to reflect the assigned staging location.
 12. Thecomputer program product of claim 9, wherein the computer usable programcode for selecting the staging strategy to apply to the manufactureditem comprises obtaining an entity type characteristic of themanufactured item and selecting an entity tie staging strategy.
 13. Thecomputer program product of claim 9, wherein the computer usable programcode for selecting the staging strategy to apply to the manufactureditem comprises obtaining a container type characteristic of themanufactured item and selecting a container type staging strategy.
 14. Amethod for staging items in a manufacturing environment, the methodcomprising: defining attributes of staging locations in a distributionarea of the manufacturing environment; defining a set of stagingstrategies for use in the distribution area of the manufacturingenvironment; receiving a manufactured item in the distribution area andobtaining characteristics of the manufactured item; comparing theobtained characteristics of the manufactured item to the set of stagingstrategies to select the staging strategy to apply to the manufactureditem; and applying the selected staging strategy to the manufactureditem to assign the manufactured item to storage in one of the staginglocations in the distribution area based on matching the obtainedcharacteristics of the manufactured item to the defined attributes ofthe one of the staging locations, wherein selecting the staging strategyto apply to the manufactured item comprises one of obtaining an entitytype characteristic of the manufactured item and selecting an entitytype staging strategy, obtaining a carrier type characteristic of themanufactured item and selecting a carrier type staging strategyobtaining an item number type characteristic of the manufactured itemand selecting an item number staging strategy obtaining a container typecharacteristic of the manufactured item and selecting a container typestaging strategy, and obtaining ship date and ship window typecharacteristics of the manufactured item and selecting a ship datestaging strategy.
 15. The method of claim 14, further comprisingtransporting the manufactured item to the assigned staging location. 16.The method of claim 14, further comprising updating an item trackingrecord to reflect the assigned staging location.